Caracas anti-government protest attracts 200,000

VENEZUELA: An estimated 200,000 anti-government protesters marched through the streets of Caracas this weekend demanding a recall…

VENEZUELA: An estimated 200,000 anti-government protesters marched through the streets of Caracas this weekend demanding a recall referendum that could unseat Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

The march passed off peacefully despite a week of violent disturbances in which eight people were killed and 300 more arrested.

"They (the opposition) have once more opted for the path of violence," said Mr Chavez, who dismissed the latest mobilisation as "a terrorist and coup-mongering movement dressed in democratic clothes".

The opposition march skirted a weekly market where working class Venezuelans, many of them Chavez supporters, shopped for basic foodstuffs at rock bottom prices. A thick wedge of National Guard troops separated the two crowds who traded insults across the asphalt.

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President Chavez, elected by a landslide vote in December 1998, has embarked on a radical political project that has given hope to the poor but provoked terror among the wealthy.

The country is now polarised into two hostile and seemingly irreconcilable camps. Venezuela's Attorney General, Mr Isaías Rodríguez, demanded government protection for a dozen journalists attacked by anti-government protesters during the latest bout of unrest.

The protests were sparked by last week's announcement that the National Electoral Council (CNE) had validated just 1.8 million signatures of 3.4 million submitted last December. The opposition requires 2.4 million signatures to force the recall vote which would then proceed within 90 days. If the opposition wins that vote by a sufficient majority then fresh presidential elections must be held within 30 days.

"We simply won't accept a No from the electoral council," warned Mr Julio Borges, spokesman for the opposition Democratic Co-ordinator, speaking at the weekend rally.

The recall drive will continue in 10 day's time when 800,000 signatures currently in limbo, filled out in someone's name but not personally signed by them, may be added to the total if citizens confirm that they intended to sign the petition.

In a two-hour speech to foreign ambassadors on Friday, the president displayed copies of petition forms bearing the names of foreigners, under-age voters and people long deceased.

But he promised to respect the council's final decision on whether to hold the referendum - and to abide by the outcome of any eventual vote.

The US government has made no secret of its dislike of Mr Chavez and the Venezuelan president suspects that the Bush administration, which is financing legal opposition groups, is quietly fomenting violent opposition to his rule.

In the latest US broadside, Gen James Hill, chief of the US Southern Command, complained of a lack of state co-operation in rooting out alleged "Islamic terrorists" living on the Venezuelan tourist island of Margarita.

The "proof" cited by Gen Hill was supplied by US citizens resident on the island, who reported a sudden increase in the number of "young Muslims" living on the island.